The just concluded Rio +20 Summit (one of the many answer searching meetings for clean and sustainable environment), -a direct continuation to the gathering that occurred 20 years ago, attracted world leaders, including our very own President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (Nigeria), for what was termed 'the final negotiations'.
While conducting a pre-evaluation of the summit, I bumped into The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5) website.
According to GEO-5, "out of 90 most pressing environmental goals, including stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting food security, and protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, only four of those goals have a slight progress report.
These include:
1) Eliminating the production and use of substances that deplete the ozone layer
2) Removal of lead from fuel
3) Increasing access to improved water supplies
4) Boosting research to reduce pollution of the marine environment"
In all, the report emphasizes on messages we've been hearing for years: growing populations and economies are pushing the environment to "destabilizing limits."
Putting matter straight, the developed countries and indeed, the United Nations and other global international bodies that are saddled with the turn around of the world's environmental degradation are overlooking Africa.
If anything to go by, the 'slightly progressed' are nothing but terrestrial visions and distant thunder to any African.
From Shell's refusal to honour Courts verdict on oil spills, to gas flaring which are rapidly turning the once peaceful Africa landscape to an emerging Sahel dune, an El Nino land, the emergence of hurricane in Nigeria and Benin republic's Atlantic coast, severe drought in East Africa among others.
Not to mention a direct effects such as massive rural urban migration to due to oil spill (Niger-Delta), desertification (Northern Nigeria), unprecedented flood and devastating erosion (Eastern state of Nigeria).
Today, the commercial capital of Nigeria, Lagos, is battling with influx of people from regions stated above with less than 10% resources capacity. For want of survival, the state natural forest is all but depleted as people search for space to site buildings or their businesses.
Or is the Island of Tuvalu not worth looking at? With rising sea level due to loss of ice in the arctic and the Antartical regions as a result of global warming.
Where drinking water is mainly obtained from rainwater collected on roofs and stored in tanks. Whereas, the same atmosphere is being conterminated with Co2. What access is now being increased (item 3) for safe water?
Going by the information on the UN website about Carbon emission, it is evident that saving the planet will start from the side of who emits Co2 most.
In it post Rio+20 assessment, the world body's report, in part read, "In addition, the rapid economic growth of the Asia Pacific region has had negative environmental implications, such as dramatically increasing greenhouse gas emissions, that affect the rest of the world. For global efforts on curbing climate change to succeed, the Asia Pacific region has to step up its own fight against climate change, says the report, because many of the countries that are most vulnerable to it are in Asia".
As we continue the merri-go-round discussion, China, a world mainstream economy, is yet to accept it transformation from an emerging economy to a developed economy despite toppling Europe and US economies combine. This singular act made a mess of Climate Change summit held in Durban 2011, killed Kyoto protocol and push the world further to a tipping point crossroad.
How?
While US, Canada, Russia and Europe all agreed to. Implement the Kyoto protocol to the letter, the non-inclusion of China totally turned the idea to a lip service.
Now, Earth continue it fight for clean breath as Africa, and the Oceania who vast Island are fast gaining ground under the sea.
Yet the Rio+20 meeting left China, a stumbling block to a clean world, off the hook of it crime. We are now being led, with UN at the forefront, to another round of wasted years until, in another 20 years to this time, we gather for another lip summit in, perhaps, Rio.
Kyoto?
The Kyoto Protocol is an international
agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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